Oculus-only platformer coming from Words with Friends co-creator

Words With Friends co-creator Paul Bettner's new development company Playful Corp will show off its introductory game at E3, Lucky's Tale. The game is a third-person platformer with an intriguing twist: It is exclusive to the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

Along with his brother David, Bettner left Zynga in October 2012, nearly two years after the publisher purchased their former studio, NewToy. Lucky's Tale is one of two games in development at Playful Corp, the other being an open-world sandbox game known as Creativerse.

Playful expects to bring Creativerse to the Oculus Rift following its launch on Steam "later this year." Oculus VR also announced the hire of former Valve employee Jason Holtman today, the "driving force" behind Steam.

[Image: Playful Corp]

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Words With Friends creators form new studio, debut virtual reality game at E3
The game is being developed exclusively for Oculus Rift

Paul Bettner, best known as the co-creator of "Words With Friends", today announced his new company Playful Corp. will debut their first virtual reality game, "Lucky's Tale", at the upcoming E3 video game convention in Los Angeles, California. "Lucky's Tale" is being developed exclusively for the Oculus Rift platform under a newly announced partnership between Playful Corp. and Oculus VR. Playful is one of the first studios to officially partner with Oculus to create content exclusively for the Rift.

"Virtual reality -- I mean truly accurate, comfortable virtual reality -- is the most important thing to happen to interactive entertainment in decades," said Bettner, who serves as Playful's CEO. "I know it sounds like exaggeration, but it's impossible to explain what this is like to someone who hasn't experienced it for themselves. Your brain is convinced that you are somewhere else, that you are in another world. I have worked my entire career to get to this moment, to create something like this."

Founded in January 2013 (under the original name Verse Inc.), Playful Corp. is an independent studio comprised of the core team of developers that created the highly successful game "Words With Friends" and launched the "With Friends" brand in 2009. In addition to "Words With Friends", this veteran team's credits span multiple hit PC and console franchises, including "Age of Empires", "Halo Wars", and "Starcraft".

"Oculus is committed to bringing the best and most innovative content from developers large and small to our new platform. We are delighted with our new partnership with Playful," said David De Martini, Head of Worldwide Publishing at Oculus.

Playful has two games in development, "Lucky's Tale" created in partnership with Oculus, and "Creativerse", an open-world sandbox game which Playful plans to bring to the Rift after initially launching on the Steam digital distribution platform later this year.

Lucky's Tale is a platforming adventure game experienced in the 3rd person perspective, unconventional for a VR title. Playful and Oculus have confirmed a fully playable demo will be showcased at the Oculus booth #5222 West Hall.

"This is not a port. We've made something new, from scratch -- a made-only-for-VR game," Bettner said. "The result is unexpected and surprisingly delightful. A platformer in VR? It's a totally new experience, not what typically comes to mind when you think of what a VR game can be. I can't wait to see how people react when they get to play it for the first time at E3."

About Playful Corp.
Playful Corp. is an independent game studio on a mission to bring joy to the world, one game at a time. Located just north of Dallas in Mckinney, TX, and originally known as Verse Inc., Playful was founded in January 2013 by the team that brought you "Words With Friends" and the "With Friends" franchise. Visit Playful online athttp://playfulcorp.com.

About Oculus VR, Inc.
Oculus VR, Inc. is revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company's first product, the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, is a virtual reality headset that allows players to step inside the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with an ultra-wide field of view and super low latency head tracking. For more information, visit: www.oculusvr.com.